Gangster Stories Set in the 1980s or 1990s, With Clear Logic. No Stories Based on Real People 八九十年代黑道文，逻辑清晰，不要真人改变文
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The Golden Age of the Gangland: A Blood-Red Underworld 黑帮盛世：血色江湖
(Not a mindless power fantasy. Underworld, urban setting, no invincible hero, first person, tight logic, humorous writing. Read with caution if that’s not your thing!) A cursed, tragic fate. A life in the underworld that cannot be escaped. A band of brothers who stand together through life and death, and a dark life longing for redemption. You’ve never endured years of hardship, so of course you can’t understand the underworld in my heart. My story begins after I get out of prison in Ice Cit
112.1kReads9.3Score8.3k14d adds
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Underworld Tyrant: Those Who Follow Me Prosper, Those Who Oppose Me Perish! 黑道暴君：顺我者昌，逆我者亡！
[Class Beauty, I’m out of prison. You’ll pay for what you did!] Framed by the class beauty he loved, Wang Erchui was wrongfully imprisoned for three years. The misery of prison transformed the once-ordinary boy into a hardened man. But it was only after getting out and seeking revenge that he gradually realized there was a terrifying story behind it all. The truth was, it wasn’t that love affair that had ruined his life. It was a vast, carefully woven web of darkness. His enemies had already ris
9.6kReads8.9Score58714d adds
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- 3 I Saved a Stunning Beauty, and She Tried to Hack Me with a Knife by the Bed 救了绝色美女，她在床边拿刀砍我 Chu Lingtian is a legendary man known as the "Grim Reaper Wolf King." He returns to the city for a top-secret mission, never imagining that on his very first day back, he will spend the night with a beautiful woman named Liu Bingxue. Afterward, Liu Bingxue takes him home and passes him off as her boyfriend. But it turns out she has a twin sister, Liu Huohuo. The older sister is cold and aloof, while the younger is uninhibited. Sharing a room with these twin beauties is certainly thrilling. After 11.5kReads8.7Score1k14d adds
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The Underworld: From Low-Level Thug to Godfather 黑手：从沙场小弟到江湖教父
[Modern city + underworld + multiple heroines + business rivalry + romance + powerful protagonist] Born at the bottom of society, his only choice is to defy fate and change his destiny. From the day he first wielded the butcher's knife, he could only kill gods when he met them and slay demons when they crossed his path. Then two beautiful women from Xiguan appeared: one wanted his heart, the other wanted him… [Urban power struggles + hard-core business warfare + fated romance] is a novel weaving
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- 5 The Northern City Kingpin 北城枭雄 Formerly titled The Northern City's Underworld Boss, also known as Tales of the Northeastern Underworld. They say the underworld is all about human relationships and worldly ways, but have you ever seen the real underworld? The underworld is dangerous, but the human heart is even more dangerous. Spring ice is thin, and human nature is thinner still. The underworld is nothing more than a game of chess. Once you enter the game, you can no longer control your own fate. I will use my own experie 265.8kReads9.5Score15.3k14d adds
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King of the Underworld 江湖枭雄
An ordinary-looking confrontation pushes a callow young man to a crossroads in life. Faced with fate’s mockery and the crushing weight of life, he chooses to stand tall and fight back.
31.2kReads9.1Score2.7k14d adds
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- 7 The Underworld’s Final Ballad 黑道绝响 (Original title: Black Road, Final Echo) What is the underworld? Is it really not about fighting and killing, but about the ways of human relationships? Wrong. Only those who can still stand after all the fighting and killing have the right to talk about human relationships. My name is Luo Ping. I witnessed the so-called underworld in a corner of the southwest go from its golden age to its decline, until at last its echoes faded away. This is my story, and a glimpse into one corner of the underw 51.3kReads9.4Score5.6k14d adds
- 8 The Hidden Dragon of the Righteous Path 正道潜龙 One of Wei Jie’s four-part series A shooting case. An undercover agent lies dead in the street. An investigator once swore an oath beneath the solemn national emblem. At a crossroads of fate, a twin brother makes a dramatic entrance, leading to a lonely yet passionate story... Back to 1998! Our brotherhood is still here, our youth is still here. From this point, we set sail once more and forge the next great triumph! 39.3kReads9.5Score4.7k14d adds
- 9 Dragon Head Supreme 龙头至尊 The campus beauty he'd loved for three years was brutalized and killed! Chen Xuewen, who had done nothing, was framed and sent to prison! His honest, hardworking parents both died horribly while seeking justice for him! After nineteen years of living by the rules and obeying the law, Chen Xuewen finally saw the true face of the world. “Those who kill and burn their way to riches wear golden belts, while those who build bridges and roads leave no bones behind!” “If others can kill and burn, why 200.4kReads9.1Score12k14d adds
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Underworld Storm: The Iron-Blooded Road of the Martial World 黑道风云：铁血江湖路
[I'm Ma Tiejun. I'm a man of few words, but if you cross me, I'll take you on.] To make it in the underworld, you have to build up your business and earn plenty of money in the early days; shift into legitimate industries and establish yourself in the middle; then gradually clean up your act so you can walk away unscathed. The road through the underworld is hard, and few make it out alive, but I have no choice. I can only grit my teeth and keep going... Now that I'm on this ship, I'll be the fie
7.8kReads7.8Score68514d adds
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The Legend of Lu Laoqi 陆老七传奇
In the province of Rehe during the Republican era, a catchy rhyme circulated through the martial world: “Lu Laoqi, Li Changjiu, undefeated throughout Rehe; the Beggar, Detective, and Master Shang; Dalong, Qingshan, and Zheng the Crooked; the Driver, Drunkard, and Wang Chaojie; Pockmark, Du Wu, and Liu Minghu; the Twin Fiends, Kou Haiyang, and Yu Xingba.” It vividly described the eighteen peerless fighters of Rehe at the time. Ranked first was Lu Yishan, a boy from a poor family in the province.
27Reads—Score—14d adds
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Crouching Tiger 卧虎
A hidden dragon rises from the depths and devours all things; a crouching tiger commands the mountains and guards a thousand frontiers! When I was little, the strange older girl next door always asked me to help wash her. When I got a little older, she taught me how to be a real man! Twenty years of flashing blades, eighteen years of changing seasons. The black throne may change hands, but true kingship belongs only to madmen who dare to dance with the devil!
14.5kReads7.7Score2.7k14d adds
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Big Brother 大哥
At the end of the last century, before the rules were fully established, all sorts of people emerged in great numbers. They exploited loopholes, ran gray-market businesses, and moved between the worlds of crime and respectability. A young man returned from military service, only to be dragged into the underworld. More than a decade of life on the fringes followed: wine and laughter with friends in spring, late-night talks beneath the lamplight; hardship at first, then glory at last. He had walke
4.1kReads9.0Score29214d adds
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The Youth of Two Generations 两代人的青春
My name is Li Sunan, and I'm a complete... bastard. Please take a moment, settle in, and let me tell you the whole story. From my godfather, Li Zhen, to my second uncle, Cui Lijun, and then to my own dark life. From 1990 to 2020. Thirty tumultuous years in a small city in Northeast China. One act ends, and another begins. Two generations rise and fall, knowing both glory and disgrace. There are no all-powerful crime bosses here. Just a bunch of little people struggling at the bottom... The road
2.3kReads6.9Score10314d adds
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The Bloody Underworld: Thirty Years of Organized Crime in North China 血色江湖：华北黑道三十年
[Underworld + First Person + Period Setting] What is the underworld? It’s a place where even if you win in the end, you still feel like you’ve lost. No matter how much you gain, it can never make up for what you’ve lost. My name is Jiang Qiyao. I witnessed thirty years of the underworld’s rise and fall across North China, watching one boss after another rise to power, then fall. After thirty years in that world, I can’t call myself a good person, but at least I haven’t become completely rotten.
3kReads6.7Score13314d adds
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Dragon Head 龙头
For the sake of the goddess, I crossed the big shot in the county. To stay alive, I fought my way up, one step at a time, until I became the boss... One day, the hidden dragon will find the rain it needs. With a single roar, it will shift the mountains and rivers and move the Big Dipper. Stories of the underdog rising to the top will always set the blood racing.
27.2kReads9.0Score2.7k14d adds
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Bright Darkness 明媚黯黑
Jiang Dapeng leaves the army with a pair of iron fists and goes undercover, but a sudden turn of events completely changes the course of his life. Faced with the lure of enormous profits and mounting pressure, when humanity is put to the test, who will prove human, and who will turn out to be a monster? Caught in the maelstrom, Jiang Dapeng repeatedly finds himself at the eye of the storm and at crossroads of fate. Will he sink into the shadows, join forces with the tiger, and share in its riche
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- 18 Desire for Black Gold 欲黑金 [Underworld, Passion and Strategy, Multiple Heroines] Six years ago, Cao Zhishuang broke into the room of the campus belle, a teacher, and ended up behind bars. Now that he’s just been released, an invisible hand has already closed around him. Cao Zhishuang resolutely steps into the game, vowing to uncover the true cause of his father’s death and kill his enemies with his own hands. From then on, he sets out on a one-way road paved with desire and dirty money… 6.4kReads8.1Score67914d adds
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A Bull on the Rise 牛冲天
My dad was a king of the battlefield in the Vietnam War and a national second-class merit award recipient. In 1989, something happened to him while he was home on leave. He escaped after being surrounded and pursued by eighty plainclothes detectives. The authorities never said what he was guilty of, and rumors said he was either a master thief or a defector. I was the only one who believed he was a good man, because he told me he was someone I could be proud of, and I believed him. I was eight t
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The Pawn Who Crosses the River: Beyond Forgiveness 过河卒：罪无可恕
People who make money through shady dealings need to learn to burn incense and pray to Buddha. Those who move in the underworld have to believe that good things come to those who wait. After the turn of the millennium, Jiang Xinze was kicked off the police force for saving someone. He led his brothers into a world of guns and blades, with blood on their military daggers, riding the winds of a turbulent era to forge a dazzling legacy. If you’ve got a score to settle, settle it. If you won’t back
10.6kReads8.5Score89614d adds
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The Gangster Tycoon Who Rose from the Hutongs 胡同里杀出来的流氓大亨
Previously published under the titles Dragon City Years and Thirty Years in a Bloodstained Underworld. This is a lawless age where every corner is ruled by a big shot. This is the story of a naive young man who turns into a bloodthirsty beast just to survive. This is an underworld tale full of thrills and passion! Welcome to the 1980s…
40.5kReads9.2Score3.8k14d adds
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- 22 The Endless Underworld 黑道无尽 (Period setting, underworld, gritty realism, high-octane) A savage era. An unconventional underworld boss. A story of the jianghu written in blood and tears. So much happened in those years. You can only see it clearly through blood-tinted glasses... 2.8kReads7.7Score28314d adds
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Tales of Dragon City: Stories of a Small Town 龙城往事之小城故事
A realistic portrayal of northeastern China from the late 1980s to the present, full of grudges, grievances, and social change. Follow a group of impressionable young people as they face a host of challenges and opportunities and discover what it means to grow up. Realistic fiction, not a wish-fulfillment story, with a slow build.
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Tales of the Northeast: Fortune Is in Heaven's Hands 东北往事之富贵在天
[Underworld] [Not Mindless] [Ensemble Cast] [Realistic] [Passionate] [Not a Feel-Good Power Fantasy] After spending three years in prison for injuring someone while collecting a debt, Chen Yang’s first move after getting out is to track down the lousy bastard who reported him and got him arrested, then demand forty thousand yuan. But that incident sets off a chain of events that once again leaves Chen Yang at a crossroads, just when he had hoped to settle down. So... will he accept the hand fate
125.8kReads9.1Score11.5k14d adds
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The Boss of the Underworld 江湖话事人
[Not many readers, so the rating just won’t go up] One wrong turn brought me into the jianghu. Watch as I summon storms with one hand and calm them with the other. Starting from nothing, I’ll carve out a path through the jianghu. They say you become what you eat, so if you want to climb higher, there’s only one thing to eat...
2.7kReads7.8Score20314d adds
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The Jianghu: What Is It, Really? 江湖，到底是什么？
[Pure Underworld] [The Jianghu of the 1980s] Where there are people, there are grudges; where there are grudges, there is a jianghu; people are the jianghu! It used to be called the jianghu, but now it's called society! When the storms had passed, Lang Aowen knelt once more before the sacred image of Guan Yu, holding three sticks of incense high above his head. Only one question remained in his heart: The jianghu, what exactly is it? [Serious Warning: The characters and plot in this book are
1.7kReads—Score10114d adds
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Reborn in a Northeastern Mountain Village: Fishing and Hunting Across Two Rivers and Two Nations 重生东北小山村渔猎两江两国
Please give this five stars. Please give this five stars. I don't have much education or skill, and I can't write fancy prose. I use ordinary people's language to tell an ordinary story. If you like it, I thank you for your support with a clasped-fist salute. If you don't, please be kind and don't flame me. An artist can't make a living without noble-minded patrons. I offer my thanks to all of you, my dear supporters.
42.6kReads8.2Score2.9k14d adds
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- 28 Tales from the Borderlands: All My Relatives Are Ruthless Bandits 边水往事，我家亲戚都是悍匪 Jiang Wang opened his eyes and found himself in the story of The Longest Day in Chang'an? No, a closer look told him this was the original setting! And not just any setting, but the borderlands, at the most lawless time in the Golden Triangle: the early 2000s. There was no order in this era, only bloody cruelty in the forests and stacks of cash. It was a wild gold-rush age, full of outlaws. River-crossing dragons, mountain-tunneling tigers, gunshots ringing without end. When I have a gun, you c 18.9kReads9.0Score1.3k14d adds
- 29 Shen Jintang, the Madman of the Martial World 江湖狂人沈金堂 [A thrilling, action-packed tale of brotherhood and honor, where heroes command respect and ambitious leaders vie for supremacy. Handsome men and beautiful women.] The martial world isn’t just about fighting and killing. It’s also about human nature and navigating the ways of the world, all while living by the blade. Build an empire that commands half the land. Thrive in the business world and enjoy the fruits of success with a beautiful, wealthy woman... 185Reads—Score11314d adds
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Searching the Underworld for My Missing Son, I Clean Up Crime and Clear My Father's Name 失子入江湖扫黑恶，父冤得伸
(Passionate urban action, a comeback! Multiple female leads!) Also known as "Lost Son Enters the Underworld to Fight Crime, Father’s Wrongful Conviction Finally Overturned" I am the son of a soldier. After getting lost during a sorrowful journey, I was raised to adulthood by a kind rural couple surnamed Ye. I thought it was pure chance that my master taught me peerless martial arts. From then on, I became the greatest martial artist in Nan Yue! Later, to improve my family’s financial situation,
5.8kReads8.8Score38414d adds
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Reborn in the Great Heist, the Black Gold Tycoon Strikes Back 重生大劫案，黑金大佬逆袭记
[Urban rebirth + System + underworld boss + ruthless + scheming] A down-and-out middle-aged man unexpectedly reborn 28 years into the past. Caught in a shocking bank heist, he activates the “Black Gold System.” “Go ahead and make more money. It'll all become my fortune sooner or later anyway. Hahaha!” … Notorious bandit Ye Zhihuan: “Who's tougher than me in the underworld? Lin Dong? Never mind, then.” King of Thieves Zhang Ziqiang: “I once stole 1.2 billion from Li, the richest man in the coun
11.1kReads7.9Score52814d adds
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Bloodshed in the Black Abyss 黑渊血戮
(Realistic + Period Setting + Underworld + Political Battles) What is the underworld? It is an endless abyss. Once you take a single step into it, you’ll be trapped forever, with no way out. To make a name for yourself in the underworld, you have to be ready to end up dead in the street or locked away for life at any moment. Now, let me take you back to the late 1980s and show you how the son of a worker gets dragged into this dark abyss and rises step by step to become a crime boss of his era.
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I'm No Little Punk: The Shorties' Hero Squad 我不是小混混之矮子英雄队
I'm determined not to become a hoodlum. Even a short person can stand tall. Not every hero is tall, but every passionate heart deserves to be seen. I won't go along with the ways of the world. I'll walk my own path through the jianghu. The road is long, so may we meet again at the summit...
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- 34 I’m No Punk: Three of Us Together 我不是小混混之三人行 Determined not to become a thug, he knows that those who walk different paths cannot work together. Brotherhood, and the revival of the Eight Gates of the underworld. Is a sinister force behind it all, or is something far worse on the horizon...? 323Reads—Score1914d adds
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Underworld Saga: My Big Sister in the Capital 黑道风云：我的京城姐姐
[Not for Young Readers] [Hot-Blooded Underworld] [Brutal Underworld Battles] [The Many Faces of Officialdom] [Face-Slapping Comeback] [Clever, Satisfying Read] He began cultivating at nine and went to prison at thirteen. In jail, Chu He mastered an arsenal of extraordinary skills. With nowhere to turn after his release, he headed for the capital and entered the underworld, winning the support of the capital's most captivating women. With ruthless methods, Chu He outmaneuvered every faction. Sta
3kReads7.9Score33014d adds
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Tiger Husband 虎夫
[Born to be somebody, just going through a rough patch for now!!!]
4.4kReads8.8Score37814d adds
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The Underworld: My Dongguan Girlfriend 黑道：我的东莞女友
At the turn of the millennium, I headed south to Dongguan with just 800 yuan in my pocket. Someone stole my wallet on the train, and I staggered into town after going hungry for three meals. I planned to keep my head down and work on an assembly line, but on my very first day, the team leader told me to take off my pants. I beat him up. Then I beat up the fourteen guys who came after me with machetes. Then I took on the whole street. The female owner of a nightclub handed me a gun and a stack of
590Reads6.3Score10914d adds
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- 38 The Pinnacle of Flame City 焰城顶点 Underworld fiction, urban setting. Beneath the plane trees at Yancheng No. 4 High School, more eyes were watching than there were cicadas singing. Some stared at Chen Shun's dazzling blond hair, as if checking whether a certain rumor was true. Some remembered the pale pink scar at Li Huafeng's temple, as though it still held a trace of his unspent fury. Guo Qiang's silent bulk was like a moving wall wherever he went, blocking out the sunlight and the prying eyes alike. No one knew that these few 33Reads6.5Score—14d adds
- 39 Flame City: The Pinnacle, Memories of No. 4 Middle School 焰城顶点之四中往事 The Past of No. 4 Middle School, at the Top of Yancheng 21Reads—Score—14d adds
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The Tiger Roars Across the Central Plains 虎啸中州
Three cups of wine for the mortal world, one pot of tea for a legacy that lasts a thousand years. What does it mean to truly live? Let me tell you what it means to unleash a ferocious tiger. Some ride horses, some sit in sedan chairs, while others push carts and shoulder their loads. I’ve never admitted defeat. You can beat me a thousand times, but I still won’t cry!!!
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My Years as a Gangster 我当混子的那些年
The underworld is an endless wilderness, and every gang member is a man prepared to die! The underworld is a narrow path, and every gang member risks his life just to make it through! The underworld is a pure arena of beasts: the winners become kings, and the losers are crushed! Forced onto this path, the young Jiang Liang must now show how he can rule the world with one hand!
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The Pearl River Delta Rises: The Man in Charge 风起珠三角：话事人
[Decisive and Ruthless] + [Sharp-Witted] + [Brotherhood] + [Industrial Tycoon] Pearl River Delta, 2004. It was the best of times: assembly-line machines roared day and night, and gold seemed to lie everywhere. It was also the worst of times: the urban villages were a tangled mix of people, and might made right. Chen Jun had been driven to the edge of a cliff, with a group of poor brothers who had nowhere else to go behind him. "The rules around here need to change. From now on, I'll be the one m
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The Fire Usurper: Ship Without a Shore 篡火者：无岸之舟
The flames of war left Chen Hao an orphan. San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1985: a land of chaos and gold. His second uncle took him in and looked after him. But in a foreign land, he endured scorn and humiliation! Should Chinese people really let others walk all over them? No! No! No! Stir up the storm, and turn into a dragon when the waters rise! Witness a Chinese man’s rise to godfather!
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- 44 My Life in the Underworld 我的江湖人生 I, Li Qiang, have made my way in the underworld on three things: being ruthless, being loyal, and having plenty of brothers… The jianghu is a world full of legends and strife, where blades flash and chivalry meets tenderness. 9Reads—Score—14d adds
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Nine-Headed Bird: The Sinister Nights of the Underworld 九头鸟之煞夜江湖路
There are nine-headed birds in the sky and Hubei men on the ground. The underworld isn't simply black or white. It's a deep shade of gray. The road through this world is long. How many are still walking it with me? Did I, Xu Yi, manage to make it out alive?
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The Peerless Mad Dragon Who Defies Heaven 胜天半子之绝世狂龙
[Decisive and ruthless] [No do-gooder protagonist] [Realistic urban setting] [Fast-paced] [No dragging things out] [Satisfying underworld story] [No System] [Not invincible] Not invincible!!! Not invincible!!! Not invincible!!! Everything comes down to hard work grounded in reality. A must-read for fans of underworld stories~ An urban youth leads a band of brothers who would live and die for him, rising from having nothing to the pinnacle of the underworld and forging a legendary empire~ The mal
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- 47 I'll Write My Own Youth 青春我来写 Synopsis: When I was very, very young, I had a beautiful older sister. My parents were always incredibly busy and often had to leave home to work in other places. So one day, they brought home an older sister they had adopted for me. She treated me wonderfully and took care of me in every way. But Dad was exceptionally cruel to her. Then one day in middle school, my sister left. I studied as hard as I could, and by the time I reached high school, I finally got into a school in the city and foun 234Reads—Score—14d adds
- 48 I Started High School as a Good Girl and Became a Crime Boss 上了高中，我从乖乖女变成黑老大 When I started high school, I went from a good girl to a crime boss. —Reads—Score—14d adds
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My Dongguan Dream: Sister Mei 我的东莞梦：媚姐
Sister Mei's advice to me: The women at entertainment venues are just for looking. Don't get serious with them. Sister Mei also said: Don't get any ideas about me, either. [A story about working for a living, perhaps with a little of me, you, and him in it.]
198.5kReads8.9Score9.7k14d adds
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Sons and Daughters of the Jianghu: That Midnight Sun 江湖儿女：那一轮午夜的太阳
The rules of midnight are a way of life much like the law of the jungle. At midnight, what you see may be the moon, but in their eyes, it is their sun. Set against the real-life underworld of the 1990s, this story follows Zhou Shenghua's life in the jianghu.
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